I’m turning 37-years-old today.

(This hat was one of my very favorite things about this year. Just so you know.)

I was barely in my 30′s when I started this blog and I’m now I’m one step closer to leaving them.

I have very quiet and very modest plans today…time with the family at home and a massage are the only things on my list.

However, I’d like to raise the roof a bit more here on my blog and throw some  birthday confetti n’ stuff.

I’ve always loved birthdays.

They are the one day of the year you get to celebrate that a unique person came to be.

A day that is celebrated just for being…you.

I also love gifts. I’m a gift person. But as much as I love getting gifts, I love giving gifts to people even more.

It makes me truly happy.

I started something last year on my birthday that I loved. I thought it would be a great time to show my appreciation for this site and the people who have visited it.

You all mean a lot to me.

(A lot.)

So, I hosted a giveaway of my favorite things.

I loved it and wanted to do it again.

Last year’s giveaway was a bit of a hassle (thanks for the patience, Amber!) simply because I was working with a lot of different vendors and since this year has been a lot about flexibility and trying to make things easier on myself  I’ve made this giveaway a LOT easier by taking advantage of…THE GIFT CARD. (Ta Da!)

Namely these:

$50 McDonald’s Arch Card (Y’all know how I feel about the oatmeal.)

$100 Target Gift Card (Dude. The nearest one to me is 80 miles away. I have major Target envy.)

$100 Amazon Gift Card (Which means you can pretty much buy anything. I’m also kind of addicted to it.)

$100 iTunes Gift Card (Music. Need I say more?)

$200 American Express gift card to buy your own favorite things. ;)

And one more thing…

One of the first things I did when I started my job was to reach out to food bloggers to be in a new book : Where Women Cook: Celebrate! (You can also purchase it here)

Like everything done by Where Women Cook, this book is PRETTY. See?

It’s the only thing I’m going to physically ship to the winner, but it’s worth it.

Here are da rules:

Simply enter a comment below and say something nice.

That’s it.

I do like giving people extra chances to win, so if you want, you can do the following to get 4 additional entries:

1. Like Where Women Cook’s Facebook page.

2. Follow Where Women Cook on Twitter.

(I don’t, and never will have, a Facebook fan page. And while I always welcome new friends or followers I feel grody making it part of a giveaway. And I love my job, so ya know…)

3. Share this giveaway on Twitter using this tweet: “It’s @looneytunes bday giveaway! Win $600 to spend @Amazon @Target @McDonalds @iTunes and @americanexpress! http://ow.ly/7lfL6 ”

4. You can also share the above tweet on Facebook.

(Make sure you leave a separate comment for each additional step you take with a link back to your social media status update or tweet.)

THIS GIVEAWAY WILL CLOSE AT 11:59 on FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11th.

Winner chosen at random and announced by Sunday, November 13th.

This is all on my own dime.  Nothing has been sponsored, nothing has been gifted.  I make no apologies for doing paid work from time-to-time but in this case, it’s important to me that this just be from me–a little thank you to you from me for just being around and being supportive and wonderful and, well…you.

So, there you go.

I hope you all have the most wonderful day.

:)

P.S. Good luck!

Congratulations to Charlotte R, the winner of this giveaway! (Apologies for the lateness. My site was broken for quite a few days so I emailed Charlotte with the news. Then life got busy and I totally spaced that I didn’t post it here. Apologies!) xo

HALLOWEEN 2011

We gather annually for Halloween with our friends, Max and Brigitte, at their house. Max & Bridgy are some of our oldest and dearest friends. Max and my husband have been BFF’s since Cub Scouts. (They are also disgustingly good looking.)

Aside from all the festivities and dinner, we also always take a family photo on their front porch. This year was no exception, except that we were later than usual and so photos took place outside in the dark, which doesn’t make for the best photos.

For the last, oh, 14-years or so, I have wanted to do a Titanic costume and THIS WAS OUR YEAR! I had an amazing friend, Mary Ellen, who agreed to make my dress and I totally have the hair for it right now. (This photo is more accurate of how it looked than the porch photos. It was pretty dark by the time we were able to take pictures.)

Jonathan was going to go as The Titanic.

The actual ship.

BEST COSTUMES EVER, RIGHT?! It might have rivaled 2007 when we went as Dog & Beth the Bounty Hunters.

Except that due to the huge increase in my husband’s work load and mysterious lack of our jigsaw, we didn’t have time/energy to put together his costume. (IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO GREAT. Sigh.)

So, I made him dress up like Gopher from The Love Boat, and called him my personal HMS Titanic Cabana Boy.

It works for me.

Christopher went as The Peanut Butter Jelly Time Banana (I know.) And Aaron is a little monkey to go with the banana.

James went as EMO AND ANGST FILLED TEENAGER.

So, he pretty much went as himself. Only with black eyeliner and purple hair. ;)

I let the boys take pillow caseses bags with one exception. We love getting Butterlump his Halloween bucket from McDonald’s. It’s become a ritual for me to take the boys there for lunch and get a Happy Meal Halloween bucket for Aaron and then James and Christopher help him decorate it before Trick or Treating. It’s a perfect size for him and currently it is his favorite thing on the planet.

While the kiddies were out collecting candy with Jon and Max, Bridgy and I chilled and laughed a great deal with our long-time pal, Brian. He makes a spectacularly comfortable pillow. Just so you know.

And Bridgy and I had some fun and swapped costumes. I LOVE hers. Very Austen and very comfy. And just so freaking pretty, no?

When the boys came back we watched the kiddies trade and sort their candy and decided that we should have a reality TV show called “Brother Husbands”. Heh.

All in all, it was a great holiday and the kids and grown ups had a lot of fun.

And I am seriously digging this whole Jane Austen costume of  Bridgy’s.

Maybe next year I will make Jonathan go as Mr. Knightly to my Emma. (He is pushing for Buck Rodgers and Wilma, but there is no way I am subjecting the world to my pancake-like heiny in shiny, spandex hotpants.)

And to close this post, I would like to formally state that I have no pertinent information to add about the mystery of all the Almond Joy candy bars that are missing from my kid’s Halloween candy. ;)

How was your Halloween? What costumes did you get for your kiddies? Did you dress up? What did you go as? I’d love to know!

(AND…do you monitor your kid’s candy intake or just let them go hog-wild and get it over with? I’ve always been torn on that one!)

xoxo